An Honest Conversation with BC Camplight

BC Camplight, a 20 year veteran in music, released his debut album, Hide, Run Away, in 2005. His writing process has evolved to be honest and real, promising always to stay true to himself. This process was especially implemented in his latest release, A Sober Conversation, where Camplight revisits and confronts heavy subject matter from his younger years. Regarding A Sober Conversation, he explains that, “I think I'd like people to recognize the spirit of the album, which is, it's never too late to feel a little bit better about yourself and where you've been.” Camplight’s strength not only to revisit the topic, but write, produce, and put out an album to the public speaks volumes about his personal evolution and ability to create art. 

I sat down with BC Camplight ahead of the release of A Sober Conversation.

You've been making music under your name for about 20 years now. And so for people who don't know who you are, what's your elevator pitch about yourself and your music? 

Well, the first thing I'd say is don't Wikipedia me because it's a fucking shit show. It's like a Stephen King novel. I'm basically a guy that's blown a lot of chances, has lived a very, very flawed life. And I’ve put myself through some very, perhaps unnecessary circumstances, but has always made really honest music and connected to a portion of the populace that perhaps feels things very deeply. Maybe they have some connections to mental illness and things like that. I'm not typically the kind of music that you would listen to dancing around the kitchen in your underwear, but I'm sure it's done. There's definitely a lot of levels to BC Camplight. 

And what was your original interest in making music? 

Well, the risk of sounding pretentious, I do think it's something that was just born into me. My parents used to tell me stories about how I was making music at the piano when I was four. Obviously I don't remember that. And don't get me wrong, my first songs I was writing, I was 18, 19. The first real songs were awful. They were so bad. I had one called “Raging For Your Love.”

I mean, I've made a deal with myself that I'm going to stop making music when I stop getting better. I very much think that every record I put out is better than the last, or at least it's more important to me, so I'm just going to keep going until the wheels fall off. 

Well, I think that's a really great ethos to have, always improving and working. 

I don’t have really much of a choice. I'm really bad at everything else. I know people say shit like that, but I don't really have any translatable skills outside of music. This is kind of the only language I know, so I'm just going to keep rolling with it. 

The first song on the album, “The Tent.” I love the full circle moment where the beginning of the album starts with this really ominous sound, which is also kind of how it ends. And so specifically on the first track, the production was extremely vivid and really engaging to listen to. Specifically on “The Tent,” how was that song created and why was it chosen to be the introduction of the album? 

Well, to answer the question backwards, I think I wanted it to be the introduction to the album because as you may know, the album has some fairly dark subject matter. And that said dark subject matter took place in a tent. So I wanted to start where you kind of hear something approaching you, something that this journey of the album is about to start. And this is the genesis of the idea of the thing that you're supposed to take throughout the album. I like to think of the tent opening and the protagonist leaving into the sunset after he is dealt with all of the things that is the entire album. 

Which is the zipping sound?

Yeah, that's exactly right. So I think obviously those two songs make a lot more sense when you listen to the whole album, so I appreciate you doing that in order. 

And I think as far as the arrangements and things, well, specifically with “The Tent,” what I didn't want to happen was I didn't want it to be a downer, because you kind of get the sense that something ominous is happening. So I didn't want the song to sound very kind of woe is me, or I didn't want the listener to feel bad for me right off the start. I wanted the listener to go, “oh, this sounds interesting and lively. This guy's going to take us on a little trip here.” 

That initial switch really hooked me, the noise at the beginning, and then the sound changes and that guides you into the real beginning of the song. 

Yeah, well, that's exactly the intent. So I guess it's working. Early sampling, not many people have heard it, but I'm glad you got it. 

And on the second song, “Two-Legged Dog” features Abigail Morris. So talk to me about that collaboration. Did that kind of naturally come together? Did you write the song and then pick that one for her to sing on? 

I wrote the song and then I had another singer lined up to do it. And she, for whatever reason, had to back out at the very last second. And so I was like, “oh, shit, who do I know?”

Then I remembered The Last Dinner Party. I know they’re big BC Camplight fans, and they came backstage to visit me at Glastonbury, and I could swear that one of them said, “we should do something sometime.” Maybe I've made that up in my mind. So I was like, “fuck it, I'm going to try.” And I just sent a message to the band and I just said, “I think you would be great on this. I know it's a long shot.” I think they were in Japan at the time, and she got back to me within a minute and she was like, “oh my God. Yes.”

And so it was the only part of the album that was done remotely. I recorded the whole song and I recorded all of her vocals with my own voice. I sent her the track, and then she just overdubbed herself. And I think the coolest part is all of her ad-libs. I didn't tell her to do that. She was like, “I want to make this as best as it can be.” And it's taught me a little bit of a lesson about not being so precious about collaborations. I've always kind of held my music so close to my chest, and it was really cool to give that trust over to somebody and they deliver something so awesome. 

Lyrically, one of my favorite repeating lines throughout the album was in “A Sober Conversation,” the line, “boys like me feel it all.” Throughout the album, what was your process like to sit down and confront this really traumatic time from an older perspective and put into words how you were feeling? 

Well, as you may know from the bio, this is the first album I've ever made where I've been off drugs. I had a lengthy drug habit for a long time, and I think I kept that lifestyle because it was an excuse to deal with a lot of things. It kept kind of my past traumas and things at arm's length, and I was always in either state of being high or being hung over. So I always had an excuse not to, but now you always hear people talk about the clarity of sobriety, and that is really true. But what they don't tell you is what is also very clear is all the stuff you don't want to remember. 

After I got sober, well, drug sober, it's important to me that I don't claim to not drink. But yeah, I just had this rush of like, “oh, shit, there's all this stuff that I need to deal with, all these memories.” And I've always kind of prided myself as an artist to be able to tackle big things, even at the risk of upsetting the balance of my mental health. And I finally just felt strong enough to do it. I think I got bored of the kind of torture genius kind of label that I've heard thrown around in the press about me, and I just found that really kind of lazy and boring. I think I thought it'd be way more interesting to be a guy with perhaps a very neurodiverse brain that was using its powers, not to self-sabotage, but to get better and to address something huge. And I don't know how cathartic it's going to be. I don't feel any better really for having sung these things. I think that'll happen down the line, but it was a matter of finally feeling strong enough, I think. 

You released your first album in 2005. Comparing how all of your other albums have been written versus the process of creating this one, what do you think has really changed in your process? 

I used to be overly concerned with being a bit wacky and a bit weird. I think that comes with maybe a bit of insecurity where I'm already pretty weird, but I really leaned into it on my earlier stuff, and that attracted a lot of people. But I think I was just kind of hiding behind all of that. Every time I'd maybe start being a little bit too close to the bone with the lyrics. I do some crazy timpani or something to distract the listener. 

I think now I'm more interested in making music that is as honest as I can be. I know that's a little bit pretentious and might sound obvious, but I think when, I would dare to say most songwriters go to write a song, I feel like too many are a bit too concerned about what other people are going to think or what other people are going to take from the music. I've just been learning this lesson over the past five years, releasing my last three records that the more I'm trying to get to know myself, the more people are getting into it. I'm less and less concerned about really trying to understand the outside world. So I think that's my priority now, trying to get to some kind of universal truth that people can all tap into. 

And did you produce the whole album? 

I do, yeah. I produced all my albums. I work with an engineer named Daniel Woodward, and he's the guy that owns the studio I go to. He's been my right hand man for seven or eight years now.

If you could give one piece of advice to a younger artist starting out, what would you say to them? 

I know it is a trite comment to make that you should be yourself, but really analyze what that means. If you want to stand out and if you want to get to something that really taps into what other people feel, you have to get to know yourself. It's the biggest thing. Once you know yourself, I mean really inside and out, then you can write about things that connect with people. Because like I said, there's that universal truth that we all are connected with. So I'd say spend a little bit less time on TikTok and Instagram. I know that sounds like a boomer thing. And spend some time saying, “what do I really like? And what do I really want to feel?” And write from that perspective. 

Find BC Camplight on Spotify, and Instagram. A Sober Conversation, released June 27th.

Photo Credit: Marieke Macklon